拍品專文
The drawing dates from about 1864, and the technique of red chalk combined with pencil is characteristic of this period. The composition sketch on the verso is for St. Theophilus and the Angel, an important work that Burne-Jones exhibited at the Old Water-Colour Society in 1867. Destroyed during the Second World War but known from a studio version and an old photograph, the picture illustrated the story of the martyrdom of St. Dorothy (see lot 150), a subject also treated in poetry at this time by the artist's friends William Morris and A.C. Swinburne. The picture seems to have been painted under the influence of Ruskin's ideas about the socially harmful effect of 'dramatic excitement' in art, and was certainly praised by him in a lecture entitled 'On the Present State of Modern Art' which he gave at the British Institution in June 1867 while the picture was on show at the Old Water-Colour Society. No doubt this accounts for the provenance of the present drawing.
The picture was very carefully planned, and thirty seven more preparatory drawings are in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.
The picture was very carefully planned, and thirty seven more preparatory drawings are in the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.